A Russian drone smashed into Chernobyl’s protective dome — fuelling fears the next strike could blow deadly radiation across Europe, a top Ukrainian official has warned.
Maintenance boss Artem Siryi told The Sun one of Vladimir Putin's kamikaze drones punched straight through the steel shell shielding the infamous Reactor 4.
The February 14 strike ignited fires between its two critical layers - burning through a vital internal membrane designed to keep radiation sealed inside.
Siryi, head of maintenance at the New Safe Confinement (NSC), said: "We were very lucky that the strike did not hit the concrete shelter structure that holds the radiation in.
"If it had landed in a different spot, it could’ve compromised the concrete sarcophagus enveloping the reactor. Then we’d be dealing with a very different situation."
But the expert warned that a second drone strike could be enough to bring the dome down and trigger a full-scale radiation leak if the structure is not repaired as soon as possible.
Speculating a worst case scenario, Siryi said the whole dome could collapse, fully exposing the concrete sarcophagus around Reactor 4.
In a chain reaction, the sarcophagus could eventually get damaged and leak the deadly radiation in a 'Chernobyl 2.0'.
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